How to Begin the Night

Close the blinds
and breathe –
eyelids at rest.
Pull swaths of curtain
over the world.
The day no longer holds you.
The night opens and unfurls –
the blue orchid of Persephone’s dream.

A sinking stone falls –
finding no bottom.
The prayer for sleep
swims in circles –
it counts sheep.
Listening for the deepest,
darkest part –
seeking the ocean bed world –
the call becomes a pin point,
then nothing at all.



Cristina Norcross